ABSTRACT

The French Revolution codified the democratic concept of the museum as a public institution, encompassing the state's responsibility for its heritage and the museum's obligation toward the citizens. Regardless of geographical location, museums in many countries have faced new political and popular demands and have responded with similar solutions: cultural activities, development strategies, and modernized features. According to Schaer, 'By the eve of the French Revolution, the public museum had become a necessary institution, one whose future across the continent seemed more or less assured. Preserving the cultural heritage while meeting current cultural goals and ensuring economic viability are, and will be, dilemmas as well as challenges for modern museums and their professionals. Museums' cultural strategies conceived to ensure and enlarge the audience by responding to the public diversity may answer some of the difficulties museums encounter in a mass society.